in Tenryu-ji

 

Σαν σήμερα το 2013, στον κήπο του βουδιστικού ναού Tenryu-ji, 

στο πανέμορφο προάστιο του Kyoto, Arashiyama

και στο ίδιο σημείο τον Οκτώβριο του 2024

Burning prayers

Βρίσκεις σε ναούς (και σε βουδιστικούς και σε σίντο) στην Ιαπωνία (εδώ στο ιερό shinto Kumano Nachi-Taisha στη χερσόνησο Kii) μικρές ξύλινες πλακέτες, που είτε είναι άγραφες και μπορεί κανείς να γράψει μια προσευχή ή επιθυμία του, ή έχουν έτοιμα κάποια τυπικά αιτήματα (πχ υγείας). Τις ξύλινες αυτές πλακέτες τις καίνε τελετουργικά είτε οι ιερείς, είτε οι ίδιοι οι πιστοί. Η τελετουργική καύση πιστεύεται ότι καθαρίζει την αρνητική ενέργεια, απελευθερώνει συμβολικά την ευχή στον πνευματικό κόσμο και προσκαλεί ευλογίες, καλή τύχη ή προστασία για τον συμμετέχοντα.

Video

Fish market breakfast

 

Από την παραγωγή στην κατανάλωση: πρωινό στην ιχθυόσκαλα του Nachi Katsuura στη χερσόνησο Kii (του κεντρικού νησιού της Ιαπωνίας Honshu). 

Τί πρωινό; Φρεσκότατος (πιο φρέσκος δεν γίνεται) ωμός τόνος.

Matcha ice cream in Uji

 

Video

Special matcha ice cream, sprinkled with high-quality matcha powder from Uji

Anna enjoying superb matcha ice cream 

Tea ceremony in Uji

 

For a traditional Japanese tea ceremony at tea house Taiho-An in Uji, the capital of green tea in Japan, near Kyoto.

They Say Nothing Stays the Same

 

Κανείς δεν ισχυρίστηκε ότι η υψηλή τέχνη είναι ασυμβίβαστη με τις ταπεινές γεύσεις ...

... με τον Γιώργο για πιτόγυρο πριν από την ιαπωνική ταινία του τίτλου

They Say Nothing Stays the Same

Rope

Pulling the prayer rope at a Buddhist temple. 10 years ago, November 2013, Nara (Japan).

STELab 1998

 

In legendary STELab in Toyokawa near Nagoya, 

25 (!) years ago, as Visiting Associate Professor, 

with Prof. Susumu Kokubun

Anna

 

Anna at Logan Pass, Glacier National Park

Anna at Ranoch Moor, Scotland

    

Anna with Japanese ladies

Anna with two maikos

Strahil

 

Japanese breakfast after Sunday Mass at the orthodox parish of Nagoya, with my good friend Strahil Pastuhov from Bulgaria, five years ago.

Yohsuke Kamide

 

Yohsuke Kamide speaking at the 20th anniversary symposium of Rikubetsu Observatory “From Space to the Earth”, in Hokkaido (Japan), on 8-9 November 2017. It was the last time I met Kamide sensei. 

I remember him fondly as a great scientist and a great teacher and mentor.

Dr. Yosuke Kamide, a Nagoya University Professor Emeritus and the Director of the Rikubetsu Space Earth Science Museum (Galaxy Forest Observatory), passed away on 09th December 2021 at 78 years old. 

He was a brilliant scientist in the physics of aurora and ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling processes. He was born in 1943 in Otaru, Japan, graduated Hokkaido University in 1966, and got Ph.D in the University of Tokyo (Graduate School of Science) in 1972. Then he became a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Geophysical Institute of University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1973-1975, and Senior Research Associate in University of Colorado Boulder in 1975-1977. During his stay in US, he started his pioneering studies of geomagnetic storm and substorm and modeling of ionospheric electric fields, ionospheric currents, and field-aligned currents from ground magnetic field variations in the auroral zone, which is known as the Kamide-Richmond-Matsushita (KRM) model. This model is one of the origins of the widely-used Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). After finishing these terms in US, he joined Kyoto Sangyo University in 1977 as an associate professor and promoted to a full professor in 1981. Then he moved to the Solar-Terrestrial Environmental Laboratory (STEL), Nagoya University, as a full professor for 1992-2007, including the term served as the director of STEL in 1999-2005. In STEL, he conducted state-of-art space weather research with a new facility called Geospace Environment Data Analysis System (GEDAS). He has also
contributed to make this new STEL, which was established in 1990, to an
international institution, by inviting many top-class scientists to STEL and by
organizing several important international conferences, such as the International Conference on Substorms-4 (ICS-4) at Lake Hamana on March 1998, the first STEP-Results, Applications, and Modeling Phase (S-RAMP) conference at Sapporo on October 2000, and the 23rd General Assembly of International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Sapporo on June-July 2003. He was also one of three major founders of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS). The award for early career scientist at AOGS is named the “Kamide Lecture Award” in honor of him. He was a Vice President of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy
(IAGA) for 2003-2007 and member of several international committees of Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP). He acted as the editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics and Geophysical Research Letters for eleven years. According to all these international activities, he was recognized as an Associate of Royal Astronomical Society, London, and received its Price Medal, a Fellow of American Geophysical Union, a Member (Corresponding) of International Academy of Astronautics, an Honorary Member of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, and a Fellow of Japan Geoscience Union.

Prof. Kamide was also enthusiastic for outreach of auroral sciences by publishing many public books and by editing a comic-book series of solar-terrestrial physics. The comic-book series are being further translated to more than ten languages in the world in collaboration with SCOSTEP. This translation activity is still going on, contributing widely to the public outreach of solar-terrestrial physics. After retiring STEL in 2007, he became a Designated Professor of the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, in 2008-2010, and then the Director of the Rikubetsu Space Earth Science Museum (Galaxy Forest Observatory) until he passed away, further acting for the outreach of space physics to the general public, including kids.

Prof. Kamide was loved for his kindness, humor, fruitful debate ability, and
willingness to serve the community. Being an outstanding scientist and a generous friend, he will be sorely missed.

Hatsuyume

 

For my Japanese friends: hope you had a great hatsuyume!

Nagasaki

9 August 1945, 11:02, Nagasaki (Kyushu Island) 

Hiroshima Black Rain

6 August 1945, 08:15

Hiroshima, 1 December 2017, at the atomic bomb hypocenter

At the Atomic Bomb Dome

At the Children's Peace Monument

Video 1

Video 2

The Peace Bell at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park